The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1888.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5368, 5 November 1888, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1888.

We have been looking over the printed questions put to the children belonging to the Fifth and Sixth Staudards of the district schools at their annual standard examination held la.st Friday. Tho whole of the questions eeeni to have been designed not so much with the object of testing tho knowlodgo that the children have acquired in those two Standards, as to discover what they do not know, and probably never have been taught. The arithmetic paper contains seven epecial questions for boys, and the eamo number for girls, and two for both boys and girls. Two hours were allowed to answer them, and we should vastly like to make the acquaintance of un adult who could within tho time satisfactorily dispose of the nine questions that were demanded of the young huls attending our district schools. Question No. 1 is simple enough, and quite out of place in a series that requiries a knowledge of the highest branches of arithmetic. But what can be thought of No. 2, which runs as follows; —'' What is tho prioe of o\ por oon.t. utock., no (hut I may get 1; per cunt, for my money after paying jt per cent, brokerage!'" It may bo a very clever thing to put puzaling rjuos. tioiif that m> child can be expected to (■newer, but we maintain that it is most unfair to both teachers and pupils, for it utterly fails to provo the work of either the one or the other. The test of merit is in the number of " passes," and if the examination for those pusses is of a cliurnetor that almost prevents any child from pawing, a gtoss injustice is inflicted on the school. Tho question, that w« have quoted above cannot bo said to bring out the knowledge of fi lr>y of from l\ to U years, 'but'only serve* to show ihtit he dqoa nut know enough to answer it, and that we maintain ought not to bo the object of an examination. If a boy of Standard VI. found uo difficulty iti answering it we should strongly suspect that he lnid teen crammed for th.it and two or three other questions that are Jμ \\](i paper. Here is « Bimplo bum in acjditiou ior the girls of th.3 Sixth Standard—" Add together i' of » guinea, t-otbs of a sovereign, - 7<i of a shilling, •:}";> of fi crown, IS-Kitheof half.a-sovcreign, and 1 -10th of a shilling." A girl may, perhaps, turn out a better woman, wife, or mother, for having decimals and fractions at her fingers ends, but it raises a feeling: strongly akin to pity when littlo girls are uskod and aro expected to answer questions like tho following which mutt present themselves to their lniuds as pu/xliug conundrums : —" Nelly owc-.I KfJh" '.<-:ii-Js tho amount that Kate owed Juno, 'i'o tuiitlii lnutiofs Kate gave 2s to Ndiy. who then paid Jane. What did Katu owo Jane;" ''If £3033 I Us :jd l>u lent out u\, tllo Kite of i!,'. per cent, per annum, huw loujj will it bu in amounting to JL'IoST 13* WA'f" To itt(.oiijpt (o uu*\m' siil'lj a question appears to us to bu a stupid wabtu of tiiuu, and if tho poor girls in the Sixth Standard arc worrying every day over such matters, then thtir'lives must bo pitiable. The children of Slumlord V* arc let: dowi) Komewliut lighter. .Were is a question in grammar, undwomayaddihatt.hu irrumm.-ir is presumaMv the Inspector's- -" What is meant by the" voice of 11 verb ? What do the active and passive voice of verbs respt'i:tjvoly demtie ': Expl'iiu liow the passive voicj is funned and give three examples? " I(. is impossible for m U) notioi; all the (|lU>.nJOl|S i>* ai'ltlMiSUiji;, (fii«mn t ap, and ] —«*iv, tiijif >vf.'fu VH r - to the elijldren (it j .rcorn- ■''-*"*t«H/ i })\tt fhp gpneral Sic liwt"exau... '-<* i« catp]>y, and diaracter of them we tn,.... ""'"Wt-WH I ior the sake of the utility of the tu. hat is to be acquired at the district schools , *-c hope thi-ie will be very fe'v passes. b

The ladies of New Zealand have had a great compliment paid them, and that by ono of their own sex. '' Tho art of conversation is unknown in New Zealand." an ! English lady has remarked. When she was in this colony, and she spent eighteen ] months here, she could hear nothing spoken of half the time but the advantages of using kerosene in washing clothes, and the other half was talk about servants. No sciindal, no back-biting one's neighbors, nothing about the fashions, or Mrs. Jones' last new bonnet! What a dreary timo this i English lady must have had h«re ! The art of conversation is best shown in speaking <>f what one understands and of what is of interest. The art of gossip is to gabble at tho rate of fourteen to the dozen of what docs not concern you. The English lady, probably, "put her washing out," and it really did not matter whether the clothes were washed in a decoction of kerosene, or scrubbed on a river bed, so long as the things came home clean. But to New Zealand Indies, whose object in life is to make their homos happy and comfortable, such subjects as washing, and the capacities of their domestic servants, are of the utmost importance, and the discovery that kerosene possessed a cleansing property of extraordinary power came as a boon and a, blessing. We have heard nothing that speaks so highly of New Zealand housewives as the supercilious remark of this idle English woman, that tho art of conversation is unknown amongst them. JL.oug may it be so.

" Axuleh" writes to a Clirifitchurch paper to protest against the " vice " of fishing on a Sunday. " Angler " has no desiro to pose us a strict Sabbatarian in the old Scotch acceptation of that term, but ho looks upon the observance of Sunday as a good old English custom which is worth preserving. , It is undoubtedly the fact thut, in this colony, the good old custom observed by all respectable people at Home of keeping the Sabbath holy, is ignored to a very great extent, and especially by both sexes when at an age when they can defy, or feel independent of parental control. "Angler" says : —" We hear sometimes of the growth of immorality among tho rising generation ; and is this to be wondered at when persons of mature years, who are looked upon as respectable members of society, lend tho van in trampling under foot a time-honored custom ?" While we quite, approve of tho sentiments expressed by " Angler," wo are not at all sure that a strict observance of the Sabbath is an indication of morality. The annals of criminals have too often showed that outward piety Ims been but the cloak to hide tho worst designs; and the morals of t\w Scotch nation are not above reproach, although public houses in tho Land o' Cakes are rigorously closed on Sundays, and to be absent from kirk on that day is J regarded as wicked.